College Park community theater looking for "brains and brawn"

What could be more entertaining, Robert DiCerbo noted, than a Best Man competition held in College Park.

“Think of it as brains and brawn,” he said.

Even better, DiCerbo said, is if it helps serve the purpose of getting a community theater built in College Park.

“It’s really about how to have fun events, and to do fundraising,” he said.

It was DiCerbo and Denise Badger, two residents of College Park, who not only came up with the vision of founding a community theater in the neighborhood, but formed an organization to help make it a reality.

The College Park Neighborhood Arts & Theatre Center is the name of the organization working to construct a performing arts center in the neighborhood, a building that would host art exhibitions, community theater productions, and other special events.

They have a location picked out, and are focusing now on organizing fundraisers to help raise the money needed to construct the center.

One concept they like, DiCerbo said, is to ask the community to help decide which men in College Park have the most brains and brawns.

“That was my brain storm one evening,” DiCerbo said. “We’ll do a Best Man Competition and ask people to say, ‘This man in our office is the best man in College Park,’ and we would have a competition with an entry fee.”

It would be done with a good amount of humor, he added.

“This is all a little tongue in cheek, a brains and brawn competition,” he said. “But if you had a $250 entry fee and 100 people applied, that’s $25,000. And it involves the community, which is a part of our mission.”

They have already demonstrated their artistic skills.

The College Park Neighborhood Arts & Theatre Center staged its first production in May, the 1930s comedy “You Can’t Take It With You,” which was held at Princeton Elementary School’s auditorium.

That was an important breakthrough for their efforts, DiCerbo said.

“In this year, we feel like we have more credibility now, and that helps in terms of fundraising,” he said. “We just got approved for bulk mail with the post office, so we will be sending something out to the community asking for donations.”

The organizers are hoping to secure land located close to Gabriel’s Submarine Sandwich Shop, the restaurant at 3006 Edgewater Drive.

DiCerbo said they definitely want a performing arts center that is right off Edgewater Drive, and he said the land behind Gabriel’s is spacious enough to provide ample parking.

“For me, an arts and theater center that’s working to do what we want it to do needs a certain size, and the visibility and accessibility of being off Edgewater Drive is key,” he said.

The land they are considering is currently owned by the Orange County Public Schools. DiCerbo said he and Badger have been in recent negotiations with the OCPS over the property.

“They are considering what to do with it, and we’re looking to see if we can partner with them in some way,” DiCerbo said. “It’s empty now. There’s nothing there but the land.”

DiCerbo said they plan to host several more fundraising events in the fall to help bring the community together on this project.